DS - Hold 'em Challenge status update please

[Luv2DriveTT]

Its not the best forum for a question on Hold 'em Challenge, but since you seem to surf the books and software forum quite often, I could not think of a better place to ask David Skylansy a question...

David, what is the current status of Hold 'em Challenge? Last I read, it was being tested at Bally's, what were the results?

TT /images/graemlins/club.gif

[Daliman]

It was in place at the shoe and a couple other places a few years ago. Seems fun at first, but then when you hit a losing streak, which happens about once per hour its like all the bad beats rolled into one hitting you, and ceases being fun. Was a great idea, but i think the feeling I got about it was common. For all I know though, it could be huge now.

[MicroBob]

I don't know why this would be any different than virtually any other table-game such as 3-card poker, Carib-Stud, Let It Ride, 3-5-7, 4-card poker (I think there's a game called this), Wild Hold-em Stud (or Deuces-Wild or whatever).

[BradleyT]

It would be huge now because people would be playing "Hold Em". Put an all-in feature somehow into the game and it'd be a money siphon for the casinos.

[Luv2DriveTT]

I was reading an Native Indian gaming industry magazine at the advertising agency for The Palms Casino, when I saw an advertisment announcing the launch of a WPT Table Game. The reason why I asked, is because it seems that Hold'em Challenge is rather similar in concept to this new WPT game, where you play against the house instead of each other.

TT in da club /images/graemlins/club.gif

[MicroBob]

What I meant was that Hold-em challenge isn't much different than other games in this aspect:

[ QUOTE ]
but then when you hit a losing streak, which happens about once per hour its like all the bad beats rolled into one hitting you, and ceases being fun.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Daliman]

This is true, but I meant from the standpoint of actual POKER players playing it. Seems to me more good poker players avoid high-EV games, but, then again, a couple of the best players in the world seen to have an affinity for craps, so...

Either way, it frustrated the HELL out of me.

[MicroBob]

I don't know if it's really marketed for the truer poker-player anyway.


I think it is more for the purpose of bringing 'regular' casino patrons towards a hold-em type game that might still be a bit confusing to them.

I dealt at a casino for 8 mths (Aug 2003-Apr 2004) and mostly was put on the 'carnival' poker-based games since I could read the hands (while other dealers struggled).

So I was mostly on 3-card poker, Carib-Stud and a game called Wild-HoldEm-Stud which is like a deuces-wild version of LetItRide but backwards (you add an extra-chip to see the next card...instead of pulling one back).

Anyway, most of my players on 3-card, carib-stud and wild-holdem-stud would talk about the poker they saw on TV or someone they know that plays 'real' poker in a poker-room (my casino didn't have a poker-room).
Many of these players had absolutely NO IDEA how to play hold-em.
Talk about the 'blinds' was foreign to them.
For some, even just the fact that the players were playing against EACH OTHER and not against THE DEALER was a bit foreign to them.

"In regular Hold-Em, The cards that are in front of the dealer are for all the players to use. The dealer does not play the hand. He just deals the game."
"Yeah....I understand that. So if the dealer wins the hand then he keeps all the money right?"

However, with more and more TV coverage there was less and less confusion about this aspect.


I very rarely ran across a patron who actually knew how to play regular limit hold-em....although the fact that my casino had no poker-room might have been a factor since most poker-players were more likely to migrate to a different casino that did have a poker-room.

So, in my limited experience at a non-poker casino, it seems to me that the clientele for 3-card poker and other poker-based 'carnival' games is much different than the 'true-poker' clientele.


I believe that DS's intention with Hold-Em Challenge was not only to capitalize on the rapidly increasing popularity of hold-em but also serve to bridge that gap a little bit.

That is, give the 3-card poker type of people a carnival-type game that would also better educate them on how Hold-Em is played.

In spite of the popularity of hold-em, the number of people out there who have only seen a little bit of it on TV and still have no idea how to play is still very high.